


good goodbye

by fallingfractals



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied Character Death, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26690380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingfractals/pseuds/fallingfractals
Summary: There’s blood on his lance.
Relationships: Ingrid Brandl Galatea & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	good goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> [let me sleep, i am tired of my grief.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-BbeLmOAYE)

There’s blood on his lance.

She doesn’t want to think about whose it could be. She already knows.

Their eyes meet, and he looks as exhausted as she feels.

He is a traitor, someone that would betray their kingdom, their king—their _friend_. Someone who would abandon his responsibilities and in his wake, leave nothing but ruins. A liar, who once promised her through closed doors that he would always be there for her.

Yet she can’t reconcile that image with the boy in front of her now—the boy who could light up a room with a smile and a wink. The boy who lazed through his academy days, causing her headache after headache. The boy who coaxed open the heavy door she had slammed shut on the world.

“Ingrid,” he starts, and she opens her mouth to say something in return, anything. Her teeth press into her lower lip, hard enough to draw blood, when she finds no words. There’s nothing to say. She already said everything, years ago. He already said his piece too.

(she already cried for the death of their friendship, what more is there to grieve for? a lance through her heart, maybe. a lance through his.)

She knows him as well as she knows herself, so she knows that there's nothing more to be said, to be done. That this is it.

“You cut your hair—it suits you,” he continues, and he says it as though they’re teenagers again, as though they both aren’t covered in the stench of death. His lips lift into a small smile, familiar, and she feels—

“You look dashing. Like a dashing knight, Ingrid.”

Her throat seizes. She remembers once giggling to her friends in hushed tones about her dreams of her knighting ceremony. She would be wearing her finest armours, her head held high, draped in regal emerald. Then, she would fall to one knee, His Highness tapping a ceremonial sword on her shoulders, as she swore her life to her homeland. Sylvain, Felix, and Glenn would be there, watching all of her hard work and perseverance come to fruition.

With each passing day, the dream feels further and further away. Even though her lance feels as comfortable in her hands as though it’s just another part of her body. Even though the motion of thrusting a weapon through an enemy soldier is now second nature. Even though she’s since long decided that she’s prepared for her—the end.

“I never thought I’d be the last person you’d be flattering, Sylvain,” she eventually finds the words, but they don’t come out as scathing as she wanted them to; instead, they fall flat to her own ears, a mere whisper of her intentions.

“It was always going to be you,” he says simply, with such certainty, that she balks.

She wishes it was easy, that the words didn’t come out so familiar. They should have been more critical, more hateful, more resentful.

Why, after everything, is it still so hard to _hate_ him? Why can’t he just make it easy to hate him, even now?

(she doesn’t want to hate him. she doesn’t want to. she doesn’t.)

“Liar,” she tells herself, and she raises her weapon, watching as he readies his stance in return.

Tonight, she belatedly realizes, another part of her will die. There will always be something to grieve for.

There’s blood on his lance.

(there’s blood on hers, too.)

**Author's Note:**

> i am perfectly capable of writing fluff but what if i wrote angst instead. what if.
> 
> also i like the jp fight dialogue since it’s more melancholy and less uh. confrontational? i guess - than the eng ver - so i just tried to vibe with that. this is really short and not a lot happened lol what are words... but ty for reading.


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